Dark Knight Rises

There are series of movies that involve scope and vision.  Jackson's "Lord of the Rings", Lucas' "Star Wars" films, and Coppola's "Godfather" films all come to mind.  With each of these series, fans debate which entry was strongest, which entry was the weak link, but ultimately, the series in question works well because of the ability of the filmmaker to have a grand vision.  Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" is actually one movie broken into three pieces, and that was the reason I thought it worked so well.  Since all of the principals were together non stop for the making of all three pieces, there was a remarkable consistency to the parts.  That makes what Christopher Nolan did with his "Batman" trilogy all the more remarkable.  To have to assemble and reassemble the pieces three times seems like an impossible task.  But with the release of "Dark Knight Rises" we see that the franchise was in good hands, as we expected after the first two entries.

The film takes place in Gotham City 8 years after the events in "The Dark Knight".  The city has enjoyed a era of peace and prosperity.  However, a storm is brewing that is being led by a menacing villain named Bane (Tom Hardy).  Bane represents an extreme vigilante spirit which seeks to punish the wealthy city of Gotham for its excesses.  Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) grapples with whether or not to dust off the Batman suit and fight this new criminal element.  The uprising of the underworld is also represented by Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), a cat burglar who is more than meets the eye.  Batman is joined by Commissioner Gordon (Gray Oldman) and Detective Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as the city is forced to deal with apocalyptic threats of evil.

The plot is actually fairly standard comic book material.  Yet somehow, Nolan and company make the material seem like more than that.  The climactic scene of the movie made me feel more like I was watching a war movie than a comic book movie.  Nolan infuses such reality into this comic book world that it feels as though the world before us is real.  As I watched the film on opening night, perhaps I felt a greater measure of poignancy due to the troubling murders at the opening in Colorado.  In any case, the film's climax provoked almost overwhelming emotions in me.  I knew I was watching a movie, but it felt like more than that.

The performances are all great.  Christian Bale has inhabited this role better than anyone else.  He is the right balance of strength and vulnerability.  Anne Hathaway is wonderful in her role as Catwoman.  Again, Nolan takes a comic book character and infuses it with an air of humanity and reality.  Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are their usual selves here, bringing believability to their roles.  Gary Oldman proves to be the unsung hero of the trilogy.  His performance as Jim Gordon in all three movies has been an essential element in this trilogy's success.  I was also very impressed with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Police Detective Blake.  He gives us a supporting character with a troubled background, and his haunted upbringing brings another piece of humanity to this film.  He, along with Marion Cottiard's Miranda Tate, bring unexpected twists to this remarkable story.

To top it all off, the film also fits into the comic book genre.  There are no out of place endings or anything of the sort.  Instead, we see a reasonable closure to this epic saga.  While I first was disappointed when I found out that New York and not Chicago would be featured in this film (Chicago was the place that the previous two films of this trilogy were made), I thought that the film being shot in New York proved to be amazingly provocative.  To see some of these scenes of terror played out on the familiar streets of downtown New York seemed eerily appropriate.  It proved that Gotham city is a sort of place that represents any big city, and that different elements of different cities have roles to play in our imagination of city life.  For the first two films, the bowels of Chicago were a perfect setting for the criminal underworld of Gotham.  But in this film, could any other American city stand in for New York when it comes to the mixture of greed and decadence, as well as an enduring symbol of not only what is wrong with America, but what can also be right with America?  There was one shot in the middle of the film of a tattered Star Spangled Banner flying near the Stock Exchange.  It was a gorgeous and haunting shot which captured a certain desperate tone in our country right now.  This movie reflects how we feel as a country.  We are divided, and since we have such diverse opinions and lifestyles, we never will be united.  The film captures the ambiguity I feel toward my home country very well.  Selina Kyle hates the decadence of the rich, but when Bane's judgment on the inequities visits Gotham, she doesn't feel comfortable with that either.  It is a remarkable depiction of the relationship we have with wealth in our nation.  We know we are wealthy.  We enjoy our wealth.  Some of us also recognize the inequity and evils that come from our wealth.  What is the answer to that?  No one really knows, and the struggle that Selina Kyle has reflects our national struggle. 

The admiration I have for the vision of Nolan would be difficult to overstate.  As to its faithfulness to the comic books, I have no comment.  I have never read any comic book, let alone a Batman one.  I suppose this frees me up to enjoy this simply as a movie, while others may be disappointed in certain liberties that Nolan may take.  With that in mind, this trilogy is a unique thing in cinematic history.  It is rare to make one classic movie, let alone three classic movies.  This movie, like the two movies before it, stays firm within a genre but pushes the limits of the genre in which it is.  As I mentioned before, there were scenes in this movie that reminded me more of a deep human drama film than a comic book film.  To be able to work within genre and also supersede a genre is something special.  The jazz great Duke Ellington thought that the best complement a work of art could get was that it defied categorization.  I can't speak for Mr. Ellington, but I can borrow his phrase for this movie.

The Straight Story

I have seen lots of movies that graphically show the horrors of war.  I have seen movies that grapple with war's complexities, and deal honestly with the load that young men and women have to carry in war.  In all of those films, I have never seen anything that honors that sacrifice better than a short scene in this movie.  As Alvin Straight is making his way across the highways of Iowa and Wisconsin on a John Deere rider mower, he is forced to camp out in a hospitable stranger's yard.  While staying there, he visits a local bar with a fellow WW2 vet.  As they sit at the bar, they each recount their stories.  We as viewers don't know if this is the first time these men have shared these stories or not.  What we do know is that the memories are fresh and painful for these men in the sunset years of their lives.

This whole movie is a tapestry of deeply human moments just like that.  They are not all that serious, but they are genuine.  There are funny moments, sentimental moments and tense moments.  The movie follows an aging World War 2 veteran named Alvin Straight.  He is estranged from his only brother.  He receives word that his brother has had a stroke.  He is unable to drive the 240 miles to see his brother.  He is too proud to let anyone else drive him.  So, he decides that he will drive a riding mower all the way to his brother's place.  Sissy Spacek plays his daughter who gives him loving and firm support.  She has her own sad story involving her children that is masterfully depicted.  As Straight makes his way to see his brother, the situations and people that he encounters along the way give his journey an almost epic quality.  He dispenses wisdom to strangers, listens to people's brutal honesty, and ends up learning something about himself and his brother.  He is humiliating himself because he loves his brother.  Even though they haven't spoken in years, Alvin knows that this may be the last chance he has to sit under the stars with his brother, as he did as a child during all those warm summer nights in Minnesota.

The film was directed by David Lynch.  I have only seen one other of his films.  He typically makes surreal and somewhat nonlinear films.  His films also tend toward the racy side in their content.  In this film, he proves that he can tell a simple story yet also fill it with his own personal touch.  The landscape of the midwest becomes a character in this film.  Also, the film score seems to almost arise from the landscape in the film.  Every time Stephanie and I get out of the city and into rural Minnesota, we cannot help but hum the musical themes from this film.  The music along with the gorgeous shots of Iowa and Wisconsin in the fall create almost a meditation.  The fall in the midwest is a thing of wonder, and this movie captures that so well.

But in the end, the movie works well because of the humanity of the story and the wonderful performance of Richard Farnsworth.  He infuses the character of Lyle Straight with the proper balance of heart and crankiness.  Witness the scene wherein he meets a young woman who is running away from home.  Here, we see Straight's world weariness as well as his compassion.  He seems to have seen stories like this girl's before, but he still is able to show genuine care for this girl.  Farnsworth was nominated for best actor for this role, and he should have won.  His performance here will stand forever as a wonderful example of acting.  He seems to be playing close to himself, but he gives so much richness to the character.  As he recounts his brutal experiences during World War 2, the viewer feels heartbroken.  This character has been to hell and back.  This character, who initially seems so cranky and agitated, is becoming not only sympathetic, but almost heroic.  As he faces one last challenge, slowly making his way across the Midwest to see his brother, we can root for him because of the pain he has experienced.  Farnsworth creates a complex character whose story is captivating.  This movie will always be one of my personal favorites.  It is a great example of the power of simple storytelling to move viewers.